Canada Post making changes

[Urbane]

The changes being made were inevitable. Canada Post is simply doing what it has to do:

Canada Post is phasing out door-to-door delivery of regular mail to urban residents and increasing the cost of stamps in a major move to try to reduce significant, regular losses.

The Crown corporation announced its plans in a news release Wednesday, saying urban home delivery will be phased out over the next five years.

Starting March 31, the cost of a stamp will increase to 85 cents each if bought in a pack, up from 63 cents. Individual stamps will cost a dollar.

Canada Post said that over the next five years, it will eliminate 6,000 to 8,000 positions, but it expects 15,000 workers will leave the company or retire within that period.

"With the increasing use of digital communication and the historic decline of letter mail volumes, Canada Post has begun to post significant financial losses," the corporation said in the release.

"If left unchecked, continued losses would soon jeopardize its financial self-sufficiency and become a significant burden on taxpayers and customers."

The first communities that will switch to community mailboxes will be announced in the second half of 2014, according to the release.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ca ... -1.2459618

[Captain Awesome]

I'm surprised the measures aren't as drastic as expected - there was a talk about delivering mail only 2 or 3 times a week as opposed to every day.

[Urbane]

I'm surprised the measures aren't as drastic as expected - there was a talk about delivering mail only 2 or 3 times a week as opposed to every day.

Maybe that's the other shoe and it'll be dropped next year.

[XT225]

I'm surprised the measures aren't as drastic as expected - there was a talk about delivering mail only 2 or 3 times a week as opposed to every day.

Agreed. I'm not normally in favor of contracting out but what about THAT as a cheaper alternative to getting rid completely of home delivery? What will the installation of thousands of community mailboxes cost? Where will there be located; on who's land?

[Captain Awesome]

Agreed. I'm not normally in favor of contracting out but what about THAT as a cheaper alternative to getting rid completely of home delivery?

Perhaps because they know semi-weekly delivery is coming anyway some time later? Community boxes take planning, reduced delivery change is easy. So, they start with what will be more challenging and will take the longest?

[GordonH]

Rarely use Canada post its down to 3 reasons:

Birthday Cards
Anniversary Cards
Christmas Cards

Yes, I could send e-cards. For me its something about a card with hand written note to the person receiving the card that I feel is important.

[GrooveTunes]

For the ones that believe this baloney keep yer heads in the sand as you will eventually suffocate. This is more an issue of plain bad management. Canada will now be the only country in the industrialized world not to have door to door mail delivery. While many other countries have moved to improve services CP has done the opposite. For years they made millions in profit and I suppose it's just a coincidence that changed the year Harper got a majority. The Canadian public will not allow these changes to happen.

Harper undermines postal service to justify eventual privatization
In Harper’s warped world, postal workers are too essential to strike, not essential enough to deliver the mail

Edmonton – The elimination of door-to-door mail delivery is the latest example of the Harper government’s attempt to undermine essential services Canadians rely on, Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour said.

McGowan’s comments came in response to the news that Canada Post will eliminate all of door-to-door regular mail service in the country over the next five years.

“All Canadians will feel the pain from these proposed changes, not just the 8,000 workers who will lose their jobs across Canada or the 1,000 here in Alberta. Seniors or people living with disabilities will be particularly hard hit,” McGowan said.

“The irony of today’s announcement is that the Harper government says that postal workers are too essential to strike, but not essential enough to actually deliver the mail.”

McGowan adds the impact will be particularly acute for smaller cities and towns that rely on postal service as a pillar of the local economy in addition to the economic impact of the loss of local employment provided by Canada Post.

“The Canada Post Corporation has already cut thousands of jobs across the country by closing post offices and eliminating rural mail delivery,” McGowan said. “What’s really frustrating is that these cuts would have been unnecessary if the Harper government allowed the Canada Post Corporation to innovate with new services, like expanding into postal banking, which has been a huge success in Germany.”

“All this has been done with the blessing of the Harper government which is deliberately undermined the postal service in order to simply create a market for full-blown privatization.”

“The Canada Post Corporation announced these sweeping changes with the blessing of the Harper government, but there’s hope. The continuing chipping away at public services and the rights of workers that deliver them increases the odds that there won’t be a Harper government after the next election.”

Members of the AFL’s Executive Council, who represent most unions in Alberta, have committed to supporting the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in their fight to protect services for Canadians and jobs for their members.

[LoneWolf_53]

I don't believe that Canada Post has done enough to embrace the ever growing online purchasing market.

Their prices for sending packages, are often completely ridiculous, when compared to the same size item being moved a much greater distance across the US or even sent to Europe.

I just sent a small bubble envelope Priority Mail from Kelowna to Edmonton, it weighed in at about an ounce, yet it cost $24 to ship it to Edmonton? Seriously? Over two bucks added on for fuel surcharge?

I've had larger packages shipped up to me from Texas, Express Mail for a third of the price.

I've also often received items from Japan much sooner than from Ontario.

They need to pull their collective heads out of their arses, and make using their service more attractive, then maybe folks will actually use it.

Don't think I've mailed a letter in five years, so small packages is where their future is at, or they might as well close up shop.

[Captain Awesome]

Don't think I've mailed a letter in five years, so small packages is where their future is at

Yeah, I don't know...

[tgm929]

I didn't think we even still had home delivery. Must only be in real old neighborhoods.

[Urbane]

I didn't think we even still had home delivery. Must only be in real old neighborhoods.

Decades ago we had home delivery at a previous house but we really like the community mailbox. It's about half a block away and we can even get parcels that fit into one of the parcel boxes. Anyway, the new reality is that people are communicating in different ways now, bills are often paid online, and even some magazines and newsletters are available online. So changes are needed in the old way of doing things.

[Captain Awesome]

Yup.

Outside of December, I think I get 3-5 letters a month.

Most of the time, it's just coupons and flyers which I stuff back into community box for my mailman to enjoy.

[XT225]

I spoke to a mailman just now; he said the biggest complaint will be "Where to locate the community mailboxes". Nobody will want them on THEIR property or anywhere near them; too many people coming and going, etc. Plus, aren't they subject to vandalism/theft of mail? (yes, I know anyone can go to your home mailbox and lift your mail). I have a mail slot in the door; works superbly. Why not cut down on mail delivery for now to say 3 times a week? That would cut costs and save putting up all these mailboxes.

[cv23]

When faced with dwindling sales most private companies try to improve services and lower prices in an attempt to attract more business yet public companies cut services and raise prices. CP recently spent millions on improving their equipment and processes to be able to handle greater volumes faster and at a lesser cost per unit, now they are chasing away customers so they will have lesser volumes increasing their handling costs per unit.
Their recent announcement has made up my mind who I will use to deliver any hard copy correspondence or packages that I may need to send and it won't be CP. I will now also save about $10 a month as I will now get every bill possible by ebill. CP's rates are high and the service is at best only fair. When private carriers are late they apologize profusely and often issue credit for their mistakes while CP rarely even answers their customer service line , or maybe it's just busy with other upset customers.
CP is cutting its own throat and will now drown even faster in its own red ink.

[WTTG]

The other 'shoe' for posties. Please buy stamps to contribute; otherwise, will taxpayers support a bailout?

A while back.

National Post

John Ivison: Canada Post poised to lay an egg next Easter after losing $58M this quarter

John Ivison | 15/08/13 | Last Updated: 15/08/13 7:01 PM ET

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/08/15/canada-post-poised-to-lay-an-egg-next-easter-after-losing-58-million-this-quarter-financial-report-shows/

. . .

The corporation has a massive pension plan commitment that it simply cannot afford to service. The quarterly repost says the pension plan’s obligations are $5.9-billion more than its resources. Canada Post has to make up the shortfall but has not been able to afford enough contributions to satisfy its obligations under the existing legislation.

Last year the government offered some relief from those obligations that will enable Canada Post to defer payments of $2.4-billion by the end of 2013. But by then the corporation with have reached the limit of its relief deal (which is calculated at %15 of the pension plan’s assets). This will but “significant pressure” on cash resources.

“The corporation is evaluating all options, including seeking regulatory relief and changes to the registered pension plan design to help address the challenges,” said the statement.

Update today.

Canada Post, OPG highlight public pensions problem

Billions in unfunded liabilities on public pensions, while private sector workers face bleaker retirements

CBC News Posted: Dec 11, 2013 1:02 PM ET| Last Updated: Dec 11, 2013 1:44 PM ET

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-post-opg-highlight-public-pensions-problem-1.2459995

The ballooning pension liabilities at Canada Post and the scandal over rich pensions at Ontario Power Generation highlight a looming issue for Canadian politicians – the growing cost of public sector pensions.

The Harper government has given Canada Post a four-year break from making special payments to its employee pension plan, which has a deficit of $6.5 billion.

'We’re starting to see a bit of blowback from young employees who are sitting there looking at 15% of their salary going into the pension plan.'

- Bill Tufts, author of Pension Ponzi

At OPG, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk found OPG’s pension deficit is $555 million and its top five executives will be eligible for pensions ranging from $180,000 to $760,000 a year.

OPG contributes "disproportionately more" to its pension plan than its employees, with a funding ratio of 4:1 or 5:1, significantly higher than the 1:1 ratio in the rest of the public service, she added.

And those are just a fraction of the public sector pension liabilities across the country at the federal, provincial and municipal level.

Bill Tufts, author of the 2011 book Pension Ponzi, is concerned about the growing burden on the taxpayer of public sector pensions and the gap between public and private sector plans.

He estimates that the taxpayer contribution to public sector pensions doubled in the past 10 years to close to $34 billion a year, counting both the employer and employee contributions of public sector pensions.

Excesses in public pensions

Tufts points to some of the excesses of the public sector pension schemes, including pensions that guarantee 70 per cent of working income and provisions to top up pensions to those who retire before age 65.

“If someone is going to work for 35 years and retire on $100,000 pension and be retired on that for 35 years when the [average] working wage is $50,000 a year, there is no way the math works,” he said.

Tufts also sees resentment among younger public sector employees who are being asked to contribute an increasing share of their income to pension plans to support retiring baby boomers.

“We’re starting to see a bit of blowback from young employees who are sitting there looking at 15 per cent of their salary going into the pension plan...and they’re saying would I be better off with a defined contribution plan,” he added.

Tufts writes the blog Fair Pensions for All which comments on pension issues and has called for defined contribution plans – in which a worker’s post retirement benefits would depend on how much is saved during their career – for all public sector workers.

But any changes to public sector pensions will lead to thorny negotiations with public sector unions. New Brunswick Premier David Alward faced protests last year when he announced changes to public sector pensions that included hiking employee premiums, raising the age of retirement and creating a new investment plan.

While public sector pension liabilities grow, private sector pension schemes are falling behind, Tufts said.

“I think we should equalize the pension system so we don’t have large cohorts of employees retiring on $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 a year pension,” he said.

Most Canadians have no pension

About two-thirds of working Canadians don’t have a company pension and only one third of Canadians contribute to Registered Retirement Savings Plans, the mechanism set in place 50 years ago to encourage Canadians to save, according to findings from a pension conference earlier this week.

Two decades ago, Canadians saved about 20 per cent of their income every year. The current rate is closer to 5.5 per cent, indicating many Canadians are not saving enough outside pension plans to support them in retirement.

But the current CPP benefit is $12,516 annually and even with OAS, pension income is just over $16,000, which can mean a huge adjustment for those with no savings.

Jim Leech, the outgoing CEO of the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, said pensions are a hot button issue and politicians have been too willing to kick the problem down the road, rather than dealing with unfunded pension liabilities.

“We are debating the wrong things,” he said in an interview with CBC News.

“We are debating things like pension envy. You have a pension, I don’t. I’ll tear yours down and we’ll all be happy. Or this discussion between defined benefit and defined contribution.”

Leech is author of The Third Rail, which argues that many public sector pensions must be redesigned to be sustainable. The book also points to the need for reforms to the universal Canada Pension Plan and RRSPs.

The solution may have to be a hybrid in which current plans change and there is more appropriate risk-sharing in defined benefit plans, he said.

Good plans make money

But good pension plans, such as the teachers’ fund are not costing the taxpayer a lot of money, Leech argued.

“The facts are, for every $1 that a retiree gets from the Ontario Teachers Pension plan, 11 cents comes from the taxpayer, 11 cents came from the teachers themselves and 78 cents came from the investment returns from the plan. It’s a very effective vehicle and by far the most efficient way to provide for the financial future.”

Leech is concerned about the retirement of the baby boomers – seven million workers to leave the workforce over the next 20 years. At the same time, they will live longer than any previous generation.

The danger is that they will live those years in poverty, because they haven't saved and they are facing retirement with debt.

“The real issue is – are people saving enough and how can we encourage them to save enough for the future at a time when we’re all living longer and we have low returns,” he said.

Leech calls pensions “the third rail” because politicians are afraid to touch them.

CPP reform stalled

Federal and provincial finance ministers will again try to reach consensus on CPP reform at a meeting this fall. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has said he doesn’t want to raise CPP premiums when the economy is fragile.

Meanwhile, some provinces, including Ontario, are threatening to go ahead on their own. Saskatchewan has already created a Pooled Registered Pension Plans strategy to help individuals save for retirement.

Leech argues the RRSP system is just as broken as private plans and the public system.

“The pensions people do have aren't sustainable ... they're going more and more into the stock market, and they are underfunded,” he said.

“Older retirees and workers need to understand the effect their benefits will have on younger workers because they will be paying the price, and will not get involved because they know those pensions will never be there for them.”